Square Enix has admitted that Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and Final Fantasy 16 revenues “fell short of expectations.”
The comments come from the financial results meeting held in May and finally made public today.
Square Enix President Takashi Kiryu announced the results, saying, “In the HD Games sub-segment, we released several new titles, including major titles such as Final Fantasy 16 and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, but unfortunately earnings fell short of our expectations.”
He further stated that initial sales of Foamstars and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, released in the fourth quarter of the previous fiscal year, were “not as strong as expected”.
It’s important to note that these comments were made in May, at the same time that Square Enix announced that it was “aggressively” pursuing a multiplatform strategy. Shortly after, reports emerged that it had laid off a number of employees in its US and European offices.
Final Fantasy 16 had been out for a year at this point, and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth had been out for less than three months.
However, there has been much speculation surrounding Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth’s sales figures and its disappointing performance according to industry analysts.
According to sales figures from Circana, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is the fourth best-selling game in the US, but it still lags far behind the previous sales figures of Final Fantasy 7 Remake.
So, today’s release of Kiryu’s statement marks the first official acknowledgement of the game’s sales figures. Still, it’s unclear to what extent the game “underperformed,” and Square Enix is known for its high expectations.
A lot has happened since this financial report. First, Final Fantasy 14 expansion Dawntrail was released in July, which will likely have had a positive impact on the company’s overall profits. We’ll find out in the next financial briefing.
Secondly, Final Fantasy 16 was released for PC yesterday, continuing the company’s push for multiplatform releases.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is currently only available on PS5, but it’s likely that Final Fantasy 7 Remake will also be released on PC in the future.
Could these games also be coming to Xbox? Final Fantasy 14 producer and director Naoki Yoshida told Eurogamer that the company wants to “deepen our relationship with Xbox gamers” following the MMORPG’s release on Microsoft’s console.
